It’s the 30th anniversary of the Institute National de L’Audiovisuel and they have trawled their impressive archives for what they think are the most important or remarkable Musique Concrete/Electroacoustic works in their archive, which dates back to Schaeffer’s first experiments in the late 1940s. Some has appeared elsewhere before, but a lot hasn’t. There are 5 volumes, each with its own explanatory booklet. Volume 1, Visitors to the Musique Concrete Adventure collects work by composers who passed through and made Concrete works, including Boulez, Barraque, Milhaud, Sauget, Boucourechliev, Bailiff, Xenakis, Varese and Olivier Messiaen. That alone is a priceless document. Volume 2, The Art of the Etude collects mostly early material that tests the technologies and techniques, including the legendary phonogene. Volume 3, Sound by Numbers, charts the period of change, when computing power became available but was slow and young enough to be a highly experimental medium (writing numbers, punching tape, sending it off to be processed), and then the acquisition of an in house computer. Volume 4, The time of Real Time showcases the Syter system, designed at GRM and way ahead of its time, that allowed sound manipulation to be done in real time. Volume 5. GRM without knowing it collects fringe materials – theme tunes, dance music, sound design, dance music, sound tracks (and includes the Bayle piece made with Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt in 1970, built around Ayers’ We Did It Again).This CD is full of great and unusual pieces. Each CD comes with a fat book of copious (if sometimes overwritten) documentation and there is an additional 80pp book of photographs in the sturdy box in which the collection is housed. A vast work of research, and history in the writing. L